RCW 38 X-ray, Radio, Infrared
Composite
This multiwavelength composite of the young star
cluster RCW 38 shows the Chandra data (0.5-8 keV) in
red, the ISAAC infrared data (K band 2.2 micron) in
green and the ATCA radio data (1660.0 MHz, 18cm) in
blue. The X-ray image was taken in December 2001, the
infrared in November of 1998 and the radio in May of
1996.(Credits: X-ray:
NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk et al.; Infrared: ISAAC/VLT; Radio:
ATCA)

Chandra Broadband Image of RCW
38
In addition to the point-like emission from stars,
Chandra’s image of RCW 38 reveals a diffuse cloud
of X-rays produced by trillion-volt electrons moving in
a magnetic field. Such particles are typically produced
by exploding stars, or in the strong magnetic fields
around neutron stars or black holes, none of which is
evident in RCW 38. This broadband image from Chandra
shows all the X rays (0.5-8 keV) detected from RCW 38
with colors coded by intensity.(Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk et
al.)

Chandra
Full-Field Images of RCW 38 (High, Low & Medium
Energy)
A mysterious cloud of high-energy electrons enveloping
RCW 38 has been discovered by astronomers using
Chandra. These extremely high-energy particles could
cause dramatic changes in the chemistry of the disks
that will eventually form planets around stars in the
cluster. The red image of RCW 38 shows only the
highest-energy X-rays detected by Chandra. The green
image shows the medium-energy X-rays and the blue image
shows the low-energy X-rays (0.5-1.5keV) observed by
Chandra.(Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk et
al.)